Russia-Poland tension over Auschwitz exhibit
The [Russian] Foreign Ministry on Tuesday criticized the Polish curators of the Auschwitz museum for delaying the opening of an exhibit over the identity of the camp's victims.
The directors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum near Oswiecim, Poland, are insisting that those killed at the Nazi death camp be referred to as Polish, not Soviet, citizens in the exhibit, which is dedicated to Soviet liberation of thousands of the camp's prisoners...
The ministry called the museum's decision to keep the exhibit closed "absurd." "We are convinced that the memory of the victims ... should not be held hostage by historical-political speculation," the ministry said in a statement released Tuesday...
Museum officials object to Russia's insistence that prisoners who came from areas of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union be referred to as Soviet citizens, [museum spokesman Jarek] Mensfeld said.
"It should be pointed out that just because parts of Poland were controlled by Soviet forces does not mean those who perished were any less Polish," he said.
Some of the Polish territory seized by Soviet troops in accordance with the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact went on to become parts of Belarus and western parts of Ukraine.
Read entire article at Moscow Times
The directors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum near Oswiecim, Poland, are insisting that those killed at the Nazi death camp be referred to as Polish, not Soviet, citizens in the exhibit, which is dedicated to Soviet liberation of thousands of the camp's prisoners...
The ministry called the museum's decision to keep the exhibit closed "absurd." "We are convinced that the memory of the victims ... should not be held hostage by historical-political speculation," the ministry said in a statement released Tuesday...
Museum officials object to Russia's insistence that prisoners who came from areas of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union be referred to as Soviet citizens, [museum spokesman Jarek] Mensfeld said.
"It should be pointed out that just because parts of Poland were controlled by Soviet forces does not mean those who perished were any less Polish," he said.
Some of the Polish territory seized by Soviet troops in accordance with the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact went on to become parts of Belarus and western parts of Ukraine.
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Auschwitz museum denies martyrology closure (Poland.pl)